To get justice is not easy. And sometimes what justice seems to all is not the real justice. The co-called victim turns out to be the culprit. The case of Nurul Islam, a rape accused police official, was a ‘crystal clear’ case till the other day. Everyone including police, media and civil society groups were hell bent on terming Islam, 52, a dreaded criminal, who had been ‘absconding’ for past two years. But dark cloud loomed over the case following his son’s claim that his father is actually innocent and was framed in the case by some influential person. A drama unfolded as Islam surrendered in the court on Thursday. He was initially granted bail by the court and later taken into judicial custody following an appeal by the police. The police alleged that they were in the dark about surrender of the ‘absconding’ cop, against whom the state police served had lookout notice. But, the fact was that Islam had been appearing in the court for the past few months, both in the high court and the chief judicial magistrate’s court. This shows either Islam influenced court staff not to let police know about his presence in the court or police had been lying to the public about Islam’s presence.

Islam, the then officer-in-charge of Ampati police station allegedly raped two minor sisters in the gap of more than two weeks in March 2013. The cop, who has two children and both doctors, allegedly raped one of the girls in his chamber inside the police station. In fact, he had caught the girl, her sister, two married persons, and another girl that evening for allegedly creating nuisance at public place. In the second instance, he allegedly went to the ‘victim’ girl’s residence and raped her sister, after more than two weeks. The FIR was filed more than two-and-a-half months after the first ‘incident’.

Although there was lot of room for probing a conspiracy angle, the policeman turned villain overnight. The entire civil society was in a frenzy demanding harshest punishment to him. According to his son, it was due to this public pressure that his father decided to go underground, till he filed his appeal in the court. While it is not clear as to why the police official chose to bear the ‘absconding’ tag for so long in a democratic country, the case is also not crystal clear as has been portrayed by police and various groups. Justice should be delivered, to whoever deserves it.

Why most people are skeptic about electronic transactions? It’s insecurity, the fear of internet fraud. Black money holders go for cash transactions for obvious reasons. But others go for it because of its ‘privacy policy’. You pay the money (cash) to buy something; nobody knows how much money is left in your pocket! But, swipe the card; it looks like the whole world got access to your bank account. Despite watertight methods to protect customers’ accounts by the banks, many still avoid electronic transactions due to fear of fraud. Then there is fear of tax by high-end consumers. The government has come out with a proposal to address both these concerns. If materialised, this will become another landmark policy move by the Narendra Modi government.

According to the government, the move is aimed at curbing black money and fake currency among other objectives. Besides the tax cut for consumers, it also proposes to give tax relief to merchants for electronic transactions worth over 50% of the total trade. The proposal of no transaction charges in paying at petrol pumps, gas agencies and for railway tickets is another key attraction towards electronic mode of payment. Besides, there is a proposal to provide discount for e-payment of electricity bill, telephone bill etc. And last but not the least is the proposal to put back the money in customer’s account in case of a ‘fraudulent transaction’ and block it till investigation is complete, limited to say three months. Many people, worried about safety aspect of e-payment, will get pursued by this proposal to make e-payment.

The outcome? After some years, there will be very little visible money left. It will be just numbers in one’s account. This will be a huge leap by India towards paper money, which took place of metal money just a few centuries ago, being replaced by electronic money. Importance of financial institutions like banks will grow tremendously. There will be swiping machine even in a small paan shop. Life will be much easier. There will be no need to keep change. No fear of pickpocket. But, there might be a time when one little snag in the server would make millions of people go hungry. A thunderstorm snapping electricity would paralyse trading even in a vegetable market. Intention of the government’s proposal might be very good, but it needs to look at all the pros and cons. The government has to visualise the outcome of such move at least 100 years down the line.

This year there has been a lot of respite from heat in the north-eastern part of India, especially the Assam valley. The situation here is just contrary to the scene in Andhra Pradesh where around 1,000 people reportedly died due to heat and lack of rainfall. It’s already middle of June and there has been no prolonged spell of heat. The rain comes to the rescue within just two-three days if scorching heat start reminding us that it’s summer season and you can’t be in such comfort! The rains not only kept the mercury level down, but also improved the power supply scene. In Shillong, where the denizens suffered hours of load shedding every day during April-May last year, there has been no such power cut this time, thanks to the early rains. Dependent solely on hydro power, the power plants must be getting enough water to generate power, at least, to fulfill the state’s own needs.

All may not like the above observation. One day of incessant rain, and you would see in ‘experts’ asking in social media ‘is it climate change’? One day of intense heat and they are outside their usual comfort of air conditioners, they ask the same question. As if they had been personally monitoring the climate of the world for millions of years! And not to miss the fact that when they say climate change, they mean change affected by human activities. Humans are too small an element in this world, which is too small a particle in the whole universe, to affect any major change in the climate of this globe. It cannot be denied that there is pollution in the rivers, seas and air due to human activities. But they look quite big and serious to us, as we are too small. Try to look at the changes from outside the world, they would be insignificant.

However, the above observation should not be mistaken as something favouring human activities that hamper the environment of this world. Those activities may not cause serious damage to the world, but enough to make life more difficult on the planet. But the slogan of climate change would not help either. The term is hardly understood by the ones who utter it regularly. They either try to ignore or forget the fact that the world today is a habitable place, thanks to climate change over millions of years! Let us accept the weather or the climate the way it is, cause minimum harm to other living beings (including trees), and live as long as this planet allows us to do so.

The Purno Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) never looked like becoming a strong political option in Meghalaya, let alone the country. Political downslide of the Garo Hills strongman had started with his radical move to contest the Presidential election against UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee. This had led to his departure from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and eventual formation of NPP, which he termed a party of tribals of India. Since then, his election to the Lok Sabha in 2014 for yet another term was the only solace for his party that miserably failed in the 2013 assembly elections, winning only two of the total 60 seats. Defeat of his son Conrad Sangma, who had emerged as a strong political voice when he was the Opposition leader in the last assembly, was a big blow to the party as well as the father. And, then came its ‘de-recognition’ by the Election Commission for not submitting election expenditure accounts.

This is the first case in the country that recognition to a political party has been “suspended” by the commission under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. The party allegedly failed to file the party’s expenditure statement for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Ironically, the commission’s statement mentioned the ‘National’ People’s Party as a ‘recognised state party in Meghalaya’. The order is set to affect the prospects of the party candidate vying in the by-polls to Chokpot assembly constituency scheduled to take place on June 27. The candidate may have to give up the party symbol ‘book’ and opt for one of the ‘free symbols’.

Conrad Sangma has claimed that the party had submitted all the election expenditure statements except for one candidate outside the state, but the damage is already done. Good or bad, the party has lost the image of a viable political force in the state. Any way out? Yes, the party can still think of going closer to BJP once again, forgetting the wound of not giving Purno Sangma a berth in Team Modi despite their pre-poll alliance. While BJP is slowly gaining ground in the state, the party is yet to have a strong face, a vacancy the NPP can fill up with people in the Sangma family itself. However, the state BJP leadership may not like any such probable approach from the NPP due the fear of being outshone by the latter.

Fortunately, the picture of Indian Army’s elite commandos engaged in the Myanmar ambush flashed by hungry and hyperactive national media is fake. The rat race to claim ‘ownership’ over the picture published two years back by a national daily was a huge irony. The commandos grinning with ‘V’ sign in the backdrop of an army helicopter was an highly unlikely posture for a troop after killing so many– we don’t know the numbers, some say 20 some 100 – people, although they were militants. Besides, the location of the picture appears to be a plateau with a barren hill in the background, which is again an unlikely scene in the dense forests along Indo-Myanmar border. Even if there is such a spot, the commandos will not expose themselves in the volatile region just to get photographed. The soldiers look like a group after a successful drill, not real operation. Another common question that should strike the mind is that as to why the defence ministry or ministry of home affairs would reveal identity of the nation’s special commandos in a blatant manner. We should have reposed some confidence on their common sense – they did such a job that nation could not do for ages.

Besides the competition among the various media, there is another reason for this picture going viral – craze for revenge. There were even television anchors going berserk celebrating the army’s act of “neutralising” (means killing) Manipuri-Naga militants. Despite their base on foreign soil, they still have sympathy left for them among the local public. The national media have totally ignored the fact that celebrating the death of their near and dear ones might make the local people feel alienated. We should remember that after the Kargil war, it was Indian soldiers who buried the dead Pakistani jawans, as their government refused to claim the bodies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a timely move by sending DoNER minister Jitendra Singh to Manipur soon after the surgical strike. The visit was vital to reassure the Manipuri public that the war is against insurgency and not the people of the land. Significantly, there was no report of any army access in the whole operation. The army and the government have to be credited for it, but there is no reason for celebration. Let the army do their job. A national celebration will not make them any better or the insurgent outfits any weaker.

We all know that we are citizens of India. But, many of us do not know what does it mean? We are all bound by the Constitution, which most of us have not read. We cannot violate the Constitution. By abiding by it, we get the benefit of citizenship. Citizens are secured by the government from enemy attacks and entitled to jobs and various schemes. The give-and-take equation – abiding by Constitution and getting the rights – is not understood by all. This phenomenon is palpable in remote tribal regions of the country. Some traditional tribal chiefs like those in Meghalaya are yet to realise the fact that there is something called law which they cannot take into their hand. There is a tendency among a section of them to frame their own laws, which leads to many a conflict.

Two back-to-back incidents of assertion of supremacy by traditional chiefs in Khasi-Jaintia Hills region have once again revealed the imbalance of federal rights and so-called customary rights in the state. In one incident, a mentally deranged man was confined, ‘with the consent of the family’, for one month. The traditional chief did not think it proper to either advise the family or take some step to send the person to a mental asylum. Two days later, another incident of a family being denied to bury their teenage daughter came to light. It seems, the family failed to inform the village chief about the death ‘on time’. So he took offence and sent a note asking the family not to bury her in the jurisdiction of the village. He also had the audacity to send a copy of the ‘order’ to the local police, who gracefully ‘received’ it. Once, a village chief punished one ‘offender’ by forcing him to eat dog excreta. There are numerous incidents of arbitrarily ostracising families for flimsy reasons, depriving them of PDS ration, MGNREGS jobs etc.

In most of the cases, these village chiefs are found to be less educated and have little awareness about law. They still have the preoccupied notion that they would have the same powers their ancestors had from ‘time immemorial’. They would accept all changes brought by modernity, but not any bit of their ‘powers’. In a country where the Prime Minister promotes the slogan of ‘Pradhan Sevak’ (servant), it’s high time the tribal chiefs understood that they are bound by the law mandated in the Constitution, and not of anything else.

It’s not June 4, 2015 when the bloodiest attack on security forces took place in 33 years in North-east and worst on Indian Army in over two decades, but March 27, 2015 that could be regarded as the turning point in the history of militancy in the North-east. It was on that day when the still most powerful NE militant outfit NSCN-K led by the ‘veteran’ SS Khaplang decided to pull off a 14-year-old ceasefire. The outfit had said it would ‘fight to the last remaining man and will never be cowed down by threat of collaborators and traitors’. Five days later on April 2, Khaplang’s men ‘kept their word’ by killing three Army personnel and injured four others in an ambush in Tirap district in south-eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh, near the Indo-Myanmar border. Again a month later on May 3, eight Assam Rifles personnel were killed in an ambush on a convoy of the paramilitary force at Changlang Su area in Mon district of Nagaland. And the June-4 ambush that claimed at least 18 lives of Dogra Regiment reminded Manipur of a similar ambush dating back to February 1982 when 20 jawans of 21 Sikh and one civilian were killed at Namthilok between Imphal and Ukhrul.

In all these attacks, either NSCN-K claimed its ‘responsibility’ or security forces found out its involvement along with other groups. The forces are also worried that NSCN-K’s aggression might encourage other outfits of the region to join the bandwagon called ‘United Nationalist Liberation Front of West South-East Asia’. The conglomerate led by NSCN-K and reportedly including Paresh Baruah-led ULFA(I) and a few others has already owned up the killings. Paresh Baruah, slowly seen as a spent force, was even very prompt to go on air on Assam television channels to claim his men’s role too. He categorically said the ‘mission’ was ordered by Khaplang, who is revered as the guru of all militant outfits taking refuge in the godforsaken territory of Indo-Myanmar border.

Containing militancy NE by using force has always been a tough task in NE due to its rough terrain and porous borders. However, in Assam the forces effectively neutralised militant groups by asserting diplomatic pressure on friendly neighbours like Bhutan and Bangladesh. This the reason why all active militant groups – except for those in Garo Hills of Meghalaya – now have strong roots in Myanmar where the government is yet to assist India in its fight against militancy. Myanmar government’s contention that its forces are too busy tackling home-grown militancy to help India may not stand long if the Narendra Modi-led government decides to have its say on the south-east Asian neighbour. The government should no longer tolerate atrocious deals like Myanmar’s ‘ceasefire’ with NSCN-K which ‘taxes’ Indian citizens in Nagaland for keeping its hearth warm across the border!

The Maggi soup might still be tasty for millions of Indians, but that could not rescue its maker Nestle from the great soup it’s in. Thanks to this information age, every state government in India is under (public?) pressure to ban it. If any authority dares wait till the test results, it is seen as a nexus with the over 100-year-old company. The Swiss multinational, not able to face such embarrassment, is adamant on the ‘safety’ of the India’s most popular noodles for decades. The company has so far refused to obey recall orders issued by various authorities. It gave its own logic. “On 30 April 2015 the local authorities in Lucknow asked us to recall one batch of MAGGI Noodles (around 200,000 packs) which were manufactured in February 2014 and expired in November 2014. Nestlé India’s practice is to collect stock that is close to its expiry date from distributors so we are confident that these packs are no longer in the market,” said Nestle India in a statement. The company’s statement means the harmful content, if it were, has already been consumed, and there is no point recalling the rest.

Even if the company wants, a ‘total recall’ will be such a huge exercise that it might cost more the whole Maggi consignment itself! It’s not like recalling a few thousand units of Nissan’s Micra and Sunny models last year. Unlike car dealers, where the owners will happily bring their vehicles to be replaced with new ones, the stock of Maggi being an FMCG (fast-moving consumer good) is unlikely to come back so easily to the distributors (whose number runs into thousands if not more). It is impossible for the company to reach out to the lakhs, if not crores, of ration shops in the country to get back the stock. Nor Nestle India, unlike car companies, has the mobile numbers, e-mail ids and home addresses of each and every consumer! By no means, the company by itself can recall the Maggi packets of a particular batch.

So why has the government asked for it. There is no report of people falling sick in large numbers after consuming Maggi. If the government has to withdraw the stock of Maggi in shops, it will spend crores. And, taxpayers will never know if the money spent was worth it or not! There are many companies selling noodles – some have even given the Swiss company a run for its money. The government’s genuine concern for public health will be known only when similar test is conducted on all noodles brands and the results be made public. Otherwise, there will always be a scope to doubt if business rivalry or politics is behind this anti-corporate move.

India is a land of natural abundance. So is half of China, which is still bigger than India. No wonder life flourishes in these lands and they comprise about 36% of world’s population. The North-east of India is world’s one of the best places for human beings to survive. Things to fulfill basic needs of people are available here. No wonder the plains of Brahmaputra valley was invaded by foreign forces time and again. There have been migrations to this land for thousands of years. But this natural abundance had a darker side. The indigenous population lacked industrial and agricultural skills, one of the basic reasons of the current influx imbroglio. The region became infamous as the ‘Land of Lahe Lahe (slowly)’.

Skill development is one of the key factors of economic progress. Despite its enormous base of knowledge cultivated through millennia and being the world’s longest surviving civilisation, India was in the middle age when British landed in the subcontinent. India’s lack of industrial skills gave British the edge to rule over the mighty land comprising dozens of kingdoms. Today, Indians are appreciated worldwide due to their skills. What the country badly need are good policy makers, who can take bold and futuristic decisions. China overtook India by decades, thanks to the optimum use of both skills and policy. The one-year-old Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put huge emphasis on skill development as well as policy changes to speed up economic progress.

Some initiatives are also being taken for skill development through various initiatives in north-eastern region where most of the skilled work force come from outside. Simple works like that of cobbler and hairdresser are not done by the indigenous population. Initially, there was a feeling of demeanour toward such jobs, but later on it was taken for granted. So is the case with jobs requiring high technical skills. Although the number of skills development workshops and career counseling programmes might create a hope for fast positive change in this sector, the ground reality is not so encouraging. The other day nearly 20 companies could not attend a skill fest and job fair at Nongpoh in Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya, thanks to the bandh called by a Khasi militant outfit. Although these outfits proclaim to have taken up arms for their ‘own people’, it will take them years if not decades to understand the adverse impact their bandh calls had on the economic progress of ‘their’ people. On one hand, they blame ‘outsiders’ for snatching the jobs of locals, and on the other they deprive their own people of jobs. There has to be greater willingness of indigenous population to take part in economic progress by truly contributing to the process and shed the ‘Lahe Lahe’ tag.